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Penn State clarifies: It is not a willing party to NCAA lawsuit

February 5, 2014

Penn State clarifies: It is not a willing party to NCAA lawsuit

Lawyers for the family of the late Joe Paterno and others have filed an amended complaint in their case against the NCAA and have named Penn State as a defendant. The University has issued the following statement in response to the filing:

“Penn State is deeply disappointed that the Paterno family, four individual trustees and others have added Penn State as a party in their lawsuit against the NCAA. Penn State will do its best to mitigate the expense, disruption to its operations and harm to its mission and interests, which are caused by the forced and unwilling inclusion of the University as a defendant in a dispute between private parties.

The Board has not authorized the individual trustee plaintiffs to sue as trustees or to bring claims on behalf of the University. Due to concerns with serious conflicts of interest that already exist, Board leadership urged the trustee plaintiffs to end their involvement in the lawsuit. Instead, these conflicts of interest and the harm to the University have been made worse by the actions of the four Trustee plaintiffs and others in seeking to force the University to be a party in this litigation.

Penn State remains committed to full compliance with the Consent Decree and the Athletics Integrity Agreement. We look forward to continuing to work with Sen. George Mitchell in pursuit of these objectives.”

The original lawsuit against the NCAA was filed by the Paterno family on May 29, 2013.